Yamagata Aritomo
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Meiji period postcard of Yamagata Aritomo |
Yamagata Aritomo (山県 有朋;
June 14,
1838â€"
February 1,
1922) was a
Japanese military leader and
politician, and the fourth (
December 24,
1889â€"
May 6,
1891) and 11th (
1898â€"
1900)
Prime Minister of Japan. He was the first Prime Minister after the opening of the Imperial Diet. He had led the newly modernized Imperial Army against a rebellion led by
Saigo Takamori in
1877 and then became one of the central figures in the Japanese army until the 1920s, but also an influential politician. He also was a talented garden designer and today the gardens he designed are known masterpieces of Japanese style gardens, such as the garden of the villa Murin-an in
Kyoto.
He has been termed the
founder of the modern
Japanese Army. During his long and versatile career, he held the following important
Governmental posts, among others: first
War Minister (1872);
Home Minister during three Cabinets (1885-91); Prime Minister (1889-91, 1898-1900);
Chief of the
General Staff (1874-76, 1878-82, 1884-85); Commanding General,
First Army,
First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95); President,
Privy Council (1893-94, 1905-09, 1909-22); Acting
War Minister (1898). Yamagata, who held the rank of
Field Marshal since 1898.
Yamagata was born in a lower-classed samurai Family of
Hagi, the capital of the feudal domain Choshu-han. He went to
Shokasonjuku, a private school run by
Yoshida Shoin and studied Chinese thought. In
1863 he did a good job as a commander of Kihei-tai, a troop newly organized by Choshu-han. During the
Boshin War he was appointed a staff officer.
In
1869 he went to Europe together with
Saigo Tsugumichi under the governmental order to research military system of European Forces. After his return to Japan in
1870, Yamagata energetically modernized the Japanese army, which he modeled after the Prussian army. The Japanese army began subsequently began a draft that same year. In
1873 he was appointed Army Minister and continued to develop the Army. He and his follower
Katsura Taro pushed through the foundation of the General Staff Office, which became the main source of Yamagata's political power and that of other military officers. He had
the emperor Meiji write the
Imperial Rescript to soldiers and sailors as well. This document was considered the moral core of the
Japanese Army until its end in
1945.
In
1883 he was appointed to the Lord Chancellor, the highest bureaucrat position in the system before the
Meiji Constitution. He suppressed the Free Democratic Movement, requesting for participation to politics by people, and ordered the formation of the local administrative system, which would consist of city, county and prefectural systems.
Under the Meiji constitution he was appointed to the Prime Minister twice in
1889 and
1898. In 1891 he received the honor of
Genro, or official elder statesman. He showed his leadership on military issues during the
First Sino-Japanese War as the Supreme Commander of the First Army and
Russo-Japanese War as the Chief Officer of the General Staff Office in Tokyo. After the death of
Ito Hirobumi in 1909 he became the most influential politician in Japan and remained so until his death in 1922, although he retired from active politics after the
Russo-Japanese War. He retained, however, honorary titles like that of the Elder Statesman as well as the Presidency of the
Privy Council.
He was considered how political and military ancestor of ideologist of
Strike North Group for traced the first lines of national defensive strategy against
Russians after
Russo-Japanese War period.
In the
anime Rurouni Kenshin, Aritomo Yamagata briefly enters the story to invite Himura Kenshin to join the army, as Kenshin's combat skills are legendary. Kenshin declines the offer.
In
1906 He was appointed to the
Order of Merit by
King Edward VII.
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